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Empress Lü Zhi - As empress dowager

Empress Lü Zhi - As empress dowager: Encyclopedia II - Empress Lü Zhi - As empress dowager

Empress Lü Zhi: Encyclopedia II - Empress Lü Zhi - As empress dowager

Empress Lü Zhi - As empress dowager

Empress Dowager Lü quickly exerted even more influence on the reign of her son than even she did as empress. The first targets that she had were Consort Qi and Prince Ruyi (who by then had gone to his Principality of Zhao, in modern central Hebei). She placed Consort Qi in prisoner clothes and stock and forced her to conduct hard labor -- grinding rice. She also summoned Prince Ruyi to the capital, intending to kill them together. Prince Ruyi's prime minister Zhou Chang (周昌), whom Empress Dowager Lü respected because of his stern opposition to Emperor Gao's proposal to make Prince Ruyi crown prince, temporarily protected him by refusing to allow him to go to Chang'an. Empress Dowager Lü got around Zhou by first summoning him to the capital, and then, once he left Zhao, summoning Prince Ruyi.

Emperor Hui tried to save Prince Ruyi's life. Before Prince Ruyi could get to the capital, Emperor Hui intercepted his young brother at Bashang (霸上, in modern Xi'an) and received Prince Ruyi into his palace, and they dined together and slept together. Empress Dowager Lü wanted to kill Prince Ruyi, but was afraid that any attempt might also harm her own son, and therefore could not carry out her plot for several months.

Empress Dowager Lü got her chance in winter 195 BC. One morning, Emperor Hui was out hunting and wanted to take Prince Ruyi with him. The young prince was then only 12 years old and refused to get up from bed, and Emperor Hui left for the hunt on his own. Empress Dowager Lü heard this and immediately sent an assassin into the emperor's palace to force poisoned wine down the prince's throat. By the time that Emperor Hui returned, his brother was dead. She then tortured Consort Qi inhumanely -- by cutting her limbs off, blinding her, and deaftening her -- and Consort Qi would eventually die from the torture. When Emperor Hui saw Consort Qi in her tortured state, he cried outloud and became ill for about a year, complaining to his mother that he felt that he could no longer govern the empire, given that he, as the emperor, could not even protect the concubine and son so loved by his father. From that point on, Emperor Hui indulged himself with wine and women and no longer made key governing decisions, leaving them to his mother.

Emperor Hui would have to protect another sibling of his from Empress Dowager Lü. In winter of 194 BC, when Liu Fei, Prince of Qi -- his older brother by Emperor Gao's mistress Consort Cao -- made an official visit to the capital, they both attended a feast put on by Empress Dowager Lü. Emperor Hui, honoring the prince as an older brother, asked him to sit in a seat at the table even more honored than his own. The empress dowager was greatly offended and instructed her servants to pour a cup of poisoned wine for Prince Fei and then toasted him. As Prince Fei was about to drink the poisoned wine, however, Emperor Hui, realizing what was happening, grabbed the cup as if he was able to drink it himself. Empress Dowager Lü immediately jumped up and slapped at the cup, spilling it. Prince Fei was able to get out of the situation by offering an entire commandery from his principality to Princess Luyuan as her realm. Empress Dowager Lü, who greatly loved her daughter as well, became pleased and let Prince Fei return to his principality.

In 192 BC, Empress Dowager Lü (who by that point had began (or reassumed?) her affair with Shen) would receive a most unusual marriage proposal. The Xiongnu chanyu Modu sent her a letter stating the following, intending to intimidate and mock her:

I am a lonesome ruler who was born in the northern wilderness and had grown on plains full of livestock. I often got to your borders and wanted to tour the main territories of Han. You had just lost your husband, and I imagine you cannot endure the loneliness. Since neither of us can gratify ourselves in our loneliness, marry me, and we will exchange what we do not have for what we do have. What do you think?

Empress Dowager Lü was greatly offended, but could do nothing due to Xiongnu's military strength. She instead offered a daughter of an imperial prince to Modu in marriage (as part of the heqin system) and wrote back a humble letter, seeking peace.

In 191 BC, at Empress Dowager Lü's insistence, Emperor Hui married Princess Luyuan's daughter Zhang Yan (張嫣) -- his niece -- as empress. The marriage would be a childless one. It was alleged that Empress Dowager Lü told Empress Zhang to take eight boys from others and execute their mothers, and then adopt the children as her own. (There is a dispute whether these children were Emperor Hui's; traditional historians believed that they were not, while modern historians generally believe that they were, by his concubines.) (See here for more details.)

In 188 BC, Emperor Hui died. One of the children that Empress Zhang adopted, Liu Gong, became emperor (as Emperor Qianshao). However, now-Grand Empress Dowager Lü would be the one who actually and formally ruled over the empire, and traditional historians did not even consider Liu Gong a true emperor, often omitting him from the list of Han Dynasty emperors.